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eMUSIC INDABA 2010

Home Made – Hand Made

  • 23 - 25 September
  • University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban
Festival Sponsors:
  • Festival Curator
    Jürgen Bräuninger
  • Festival Co-Curator
    Fiona Tozer
  • Concert Organiser
    Mandy Wilken

    +2731 260 3353

Contents

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eMUSIC INDABA 2010

Two evenings of electroacoustic music and three days of workshops for young South African composers and performers

In the decade-long tradition of New Music Indabas, the musical creations/presentations and the workshops/master classes of eMusic Indaba will be very educational and will broaden the acoustic horizons of local practitioners and students as well as a general audience. Concert audiences and local electroacoustic performers and composers will be exposed to current global developments in electronic and computer music.

Two emerging South African composers will be commissioned to create new works for what is essentially an international platform

Previously disadvantaged composers and electronic musicians as well as instrumentalists and vocalists will share ideas and establish bonds through their common workshop experiences with relation to electronic composition, improvisation, and performance. The skills honed at the workshops together with the increased experience of a broader musical repertoire will help the participants to realize their full potential and enrich the local music communities.

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SPONSORS

NewMusicSA acknowledges the kind support of:

  • University of KwaZulu-Natal
  • SAMRO Endowment for the National Arts
  • Business and Arts South Africa
  • ProHelvetia
  • Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
  • School of the Art Institute of Chicago
  • Fonds Podium Kunsten NL
  • Glenwood Village Music
  • Distell Foundation

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WORKSHOPS INVITATION

The workshops are open to all composers, electronic musicians, as well as instrumentalists.

Kindly download the eMusic Indaba 2010 Brochure PDF, and send your completed application form to Jürgen Bräuninger at , or to:

Fiona Tozer
P O Box 1154
Linkhills
3652

Please apply before 20 August 2010.

Limited bursaries are available to assist applicants who need to travel to Durban.

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FEATURING

Composers and performers featured in concerts, workshops and masterclasses include:

  • Nicolas Collins (US) info
  • POW Ensemble (NL/ZA)
  • Petra Ronner (CH)

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NICOLAS COLLINS

Nicolas Collins

New York born and raised, Nicolas Collins studied composition with Alvin Lucier at Wesleyan University, worked for many years with David Tudor, and has collaborated with numerous soloists and ensembles around the world. He lived most of the 1990s in Europe, where he was Visiting Artistic Director of Stichting STEIM (Amsterdam), and a DAAD composer-in-residence in Berlin. Since 1997 he has been editor-in-chief of the Leonardo Music Journal, and since 1999 a Professor in the Department of Sound at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The second edition of his book, Handmade Electronic Music – The Art of Hardware Hacking, was published by Routledge in 2009. Collins has the dubious distinction of having played at both CBGBs and the Concertgebouw.

www.nicolascollins.com

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POW ENSEMBLE PRESENTS EKHAYA ON WOODEN SHOES

POW Ensemble

What is identity? What is Zulu, Boer, Nederlander, Xhosa, what is cultural identity, heritage, what is 'love for your fatherland', what is nationalism.

Can a Dutchman do a Gumboots dance, and a Zulu a clog dance? Is a concertina a South African instrument, is a Mbira one? And what about barrel organs, carillons, is 16th century recorder music Zulu heritage? How is our identity made, what symbols are used to construct and manipulate it and what happens if you use those symbols in a completely different context?

The Dutch-based POW Ensemble addresses these questions in its new South Africa project EKHAYA on wooden shoes, with special guest Sazi Dlamini.

EKHAYA on wooden shoes is a dazzling show in which South African tunes, saxophone madness, scratching, sparkling improvisations, recorder virtuosity, Dutch traditionals, soundscapes, and disordering songs melt together. The computer plays the role of mediator between all these elements, sometimes merging them together, and occasionally colliding them with each other, leading to original and often surprising combinations.

The performers are:

  • Sazi Dlamini (Durban, RSA) Special guest – umakhuweyane, umqangala, mbira, flutes, voice and percussion
  • Erik Bosgraaf (NL) – recorders, live electronics
  • Guy Harries (UK) – voice, flute, computer
  • DJ DNA (NL) – turntables, computer
  • Luc Houtkamp (NL) – computer, live electronics
  • Ard Heinkens (NL) – sound design

EKHAYA on wooden shoes will be premiered at the eMusic festival in September 2010:

  • 22 september 17:30 Centre for Jazz and Popular Music, Durban
  • 24 september 19:30 eMusic festival, Durban
  • 26 september, time unknown yet, Arts Alive festival Johannesburg
  • 27 september 19:00 University of Witswatersrand, Johannesburg

EKHAYA on wooden shoes is financially supported by NewMusicSA, the Royal Netherlands Embassy in South Africa, and Fund for the Performing Arts, The Netherlands.

POW Ensemble – a unique force in electronic music

The POW Ensemble, founded in 2001 by Dutch composer/saxophonist Luc Houtkamp, is a chamber ensemble of the 21st century, using live electronics and computers as musical instruments. The ensemble has a unique powerful sound and an uncompromising approach. The ensemble is internationally renowned for its approach to present electronic music to the audience in a comprehensive way.

Computer music is often thought of as incomprehensible sounds that nobody can understand, apart from some freaky nerds. POW Ensemble opens up this isolated universe and places it in the centre of the musical world. Thus, a concert by POW ensemble is something completely different: here, real music is being made!

Electronic or computer music is not another style in itself, but can move between different styles and musical traditions, crossing many boundaries. The musicians use improvisation, live processing, interacting with electronic and acoustic instruments such as voice and saxophone. By writing their own software, a completely unique sound and identity are created.

By connecting computers to interactive networks, not only the musicians but also their instruments react to and interact with each other.

This way, POW Ensemble represents a new, unique force in electronic music.

Guy Harries (computer, voice)

Composer/performer born in Israel (1974), living in London. He studied sonology and composition at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague. He has worked extensively as flutist and vocalist. His current musical work consists mostly of the interactive combination of live electronics and acoustic instruments. His compositions were broadcast and performed in various venues around the world. He was winner of the Henriette Bosmans prize of the Association of Dutch composers (GeNeCo) for the year 2000.

He collaborated with musician Meira Asher in the programme Infantry (performance and album), and with ensembles in Europe as performer of live-electronics. His compositions have been performed by contemporary ensembles such as: Tate Ensemble, SOIL and LOOS. At the moment he is studying for a PhD in electro-acoustic composition with Simon Emmerson in London. He is also a singer-songwriter, practising electronic troubadourism with his laptop and voice.

Luc Houtkamp

Luc Houtkamp (1953) is a composer/saxophonist who bridges the gap between the worlds of jazz-derived free improvisation and computer-based composition and performance. As a virtuoso saxophonist he has worked extensively in improvised music, collaborating with numerous musicians and groups all over the world. Since the mid-eighties he has also been working in the field of computer music, mostly by writing his own interactive music software. By establishing his own computer group POW Ensemble in 2001, Houtkamp has created a new platform for exploring and expanding the musical potentials of the computer. In 2004 Houtkamp was awarded the VPRO/Boy Edgar Prijs, the most prestigious award in the field of jazz and improvised music in the Netherlands.

Erik Bosgraaf

Hailed as one of the most gifted and versatile recorder players of the new generation, Erik Bosgraaf has a colourful past in a rock band and as an oboe player. He believes that good music is irrespective of style and feels equally at home in early and contemporary music as well as commissioning new works including several concertos incorporating new media. In 2007 Frans Brüggen invited him to perform Bach's Actus Tragicus at the Concertgebouw. His début recording, a 3-CD box with music by Dutch composer Jacob van Eyck, was number one in the Dutch classical music charts in 2007 and his CD/DVD 'Big Eye', including contemporary music for film, was hailed as 'wacky, irreverent and thought-provoking' (Gramophone). In 2006 he co-founded Ensemble Cordevento specializing in the music of the 17th and 18th century.

DNA

DNA started his musical carrier end 70's. Mid eighties he formed together with, amongst others, guitarist René van Barneveld and rapper Rudeboy the 'Urban Dance Squad'. UDS played at all important pop festivals over the world, and is regarded as one of the most influential and interesting groups in Dutch pop history.

After his cooperation with UDS ended, he has worked as a studio musician and producer. In 1997, he joined the Urban Dance Squad again. February 2000, UDS stopped playing definitively.

Apart from working with POW, DNA has played with Palinckx for some years. He is currently playing with alternative pop-group Stuurbaard Bakkebaard and works as a producer. He is a teacher at the HKU in turntablism as well.

Sazi Dlamini

Sazi Dlamini has composed and recorded more than fifty original pieces of music employing self-made, indigenous Nguni and other African musical instruments. His works and collaborations to date include Inkwishi – a work for jazz big band in the maskandi style, Yinkosi Yeziziba and Jiwe for a string quartet, ugubhu bow and percussion (with Jürgen Brauninger), Destiny (with Ndikho Xaba and Madala Kunene) and Technodiaspora: An Internet Master Class Performance (with George E. Lewis, Douglas Ewart, J.D. Parran, Ndikho Xaba and Madala Kunene) and soundtrack for documentary films, children's educational TV, dance and theatre.

EKHAYA on wooden shoes at YouTube.com

Please see the special YouTube.com site for this project:
www.youtube.com/user/Ikhayaonwoodenshoes

Videos of the musicians:

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PETRA RONNER: SOUTH AFRICAN AND SWISS MUSIC FOR PIANO AND ELECTRONICS

Petra Ronner

Petra Ronner is a pianist and sound-artist based in Zürich, Switzerland. She appears as soloist and chamber musician, improviser and composer. She is involved in artistic video- and sound projects in the context of art and theatre and is running the concert series www.gnombaden.ch. Recent concerts included John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano, Stockhausen’s Kontakte for tape, piano and percussion, Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and new works by contemporary composers at Festspiel+ München, TonArt Bern, Taktlos and Tage für Neue Musik Zürich. Recordings at www.vexer.ch. Petra Ronner is presently developing new works for piano and electronics with composers and improvisers in South Africa and Europe.

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PROGRAMME

Concert details and times to be announced. Contact Mandy Wilken +2731 260 3353 for information.

Programme navigation:

Day 1
Thursday 23 September

WELCOME, KEYNOTE ADDRESS / PRESENTATION BY NIC COLLINS

10h00 | BM Room, School of Music

NIC COLLINS WORKSHOP

11h00 | Studio Live Room | 2 hrs

WORKSHOPS WITH MEMBERS OF POW

11h00 | Seminar Room | 1 hr

Erik Bosgraaf recorder

12h00 | Seminar Room | 1 hr

Guy Harries voice

Extended techniques, compositional resources, and improvisational techniques. Individual follow-ups possible on Saturday morning.

DJ'ING: DJ DNA

14h00 | DJ Room | 3 hrs

Individual follow-ups possible on Saturday morning.

WORKSHOPS WITH MEMBERS OF POW

14h00 | Seminar Room | 1 hr

Guy Harries flute

15h00 | Seminar Room | 1 hr

Luc Houtkamp saxophone

Extended techniques, compositional resources, and improvisational techniques. Individual follow-ups possible on Saturday morning.

NIC COLLINS CONCERT

18h00 | Howard College Theatre | 1 hr 30 mins

PETRA RONNER CONCERT

20h30 | Howard College Theatre | 1 hr 30 mins

Day 2
Friday 24 September — Heritage Day (Public Holiday)

SHORT PRESENTATION BY POW

10h00 | Howard College Theatre | 30 mins

LIVE ELECTRONICS WORKSHOPS WITH POW

10h30 | Howard College Theatre | 2 hrs 30 mins

PIANO MASTER CLASS WITH PETRA RONNER

14h00 | School of Music | 3 hrs

NIC COLLINS WORKSHOP CONTINUED

14h00 | School of Music | 3 hrs

POW CONCERT

19h30 | Howard College Theatre

Day 3
Saturday 25 September

COMPOSERS WORKSHOP WITH BRÄUNINGER, HOUTKAMP, LOVEDAY, RONNER, SÜSSE, TOZER

09h00 | BM Room, School of Music | 3 hrs

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NewMusicSA
Presented by NewMusicSA - The International Society for Contemporary Music, South African Section
www.iscm.org